Happiness is a place called Charlottesville, Virginia

Near Charlottesville is one of the oldest (50 years) secular intentional communities in the US, Twin Oaks [0]. And several others these days, including a few trying to get started in Charlottesville. While Twin Oaks is not right out side the city, Charlottesville is the closest larger city (amusing to see it called a "big city" in the article :/) and some people find the rural community isn't quite right for them and move to the city. While the city is large enough for that to not have a much direct impact, it is small enough that I suspect over the decades it has helped encourage a more community minded approach.

Twin Oaks is an egalitarian (income sharing) community part of the Federation of Egalitarian Communities [1]. There are quite a few other communities around the US and the world as well [2]. The Seattle area also has quite a few communities.

[0] http://www.twinoaks.org/

[1] http://www.thefec.org/

[2] http://www.ic.org/directory/

Ignoring the obvious link to current events: Charlottesville also has a lot of wealth per capita. That kind of thing correlates strongnly with happiness.

Hrmrmrmmmmmrm..... saw this on le reddit today about Charlottesville:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/aug/12/virginia-uni...

"He said that they would not back down fr" ... article starts to get pretty scary about here...

... side note ... I feel like my comment is at least semi-appropriate response to this article (sans rhetorical styling), and yet feels a bit off-topic for the website. I wonder if one could parse the site and split into 'social articles' and 'tech articles' with some textual analysis / browser extension-y magic..

to continue my point, I'm sure Charlottesville is usually a decent place, but maybe needs a diversity education program or something before it is a /really/ nice place, idk.

Provo/Orem has long been high on the happy cities lists..I really enjoy Utah, sometimes it's not as progressive as I'd like politically but if you can get past the 'red state' thing it's pretty nice. The people are nice'ish, lots of Tech companies moving here left and right, beautiful landscapes, tons of outdoor activities and things to do in the mountains...

Also read a study that introverts do better emotionally surrounded by mountains than not.. (I'm originally from Dayton OH, which I remember as a good place growing up but lived there from 2008 - 2014 and it's become a real cesspool).

Is this a vile attempt at irony given the deaths and injuries in Charlottesville today?

(July 2014)